What is Pilates?

Pilates focuses on building a healthy, injury-free body by encouraging controlled and concentrated movement. It centers the body with breathing awareness while maintaining dynamic spinal stabilization. Pilates is a full body-conditioning program composed of a series of approximately 500 designed movements performed on a mat and with specific equipment.

How do I start?

Regardless of whether you are a top athlete or haven’t exercised in years, The Lift Pilates instructors are particularly adept at meeting your fitness needs. The Lift Pilates offers several ways to practice Pilates: Mat classes, private and group equipment sessions. Most sessions or classes are 55 minutes.

To participate in group reformer or equipment classes, we request our clients take 2-3 private sessions to feel confident and safe on the equipment.

If I have followed a Pilates video, do I need to start as a beginner?

Yes, it’s a great idea. The good news is that Pilates videos introduce many people to Pilates. However, because there is no interactive guidance, it is difficult, if not impossible, for one to correct themselves and develop proper form which is essential to realize the true benefits of Pilates.

What is the difference between Mat and Reformer work?

When on a Reformer (a piece of equipment designed by Joseph Pilates in the early 1900s), your movement and the weight of your body are supported by the smooth movements of the machine along the carriage, as well as by a system of straps for the arms and legs. During Pilates Mat sessions, you must support your body weight through the movements, making the work more difficult.

Will I see results quickly?

“You’ll feel better in 10 sessions, look better in 20 and have a whole new body in 30 sessions.” Most of our clients have found this to be true and see results right away. Perhaps more importantly, our clients feel better almost instantly, which keeps them coming back for more. Pilates also helps chronic back, knee and joint pain.

How many times per week should I do Pilates?

Most of our clients come two to three times per week. However, you can do Pilates everyday. There is no “day on, day off” schedule. So, if you are training for a special event or have a flexible schedule, you can do Pilates three, four or even five times a week. However, we advise that you begin a reasonable program of exercise and stick to it over time. Ideally, you should combine mat and reformer work.

What should I wear?

Please wear comfortable exercise clothes: yoga pants, “warm-up pants” or tights are preferred. We don’t advise loose running shorts as many exercises are done with legs elevated and open. If you prefer to exercise in running shorts, we recommend wearing compression shorts or bike shorts underneath. You may exercise in either bare feet or socks.

Will Pilates help me lose weight?

Pilates is an amazing program for those who are starting or already engaged in a weight loss program. You will learn to activate and move your body safely using your muscles rather than your joints and will be better able to engage in other physical fitness activities. The Lift Pilates works to create a warm and welcoming environment.

Do men benefit from Pilates?

Remember: Pilates was created by a man and was later adapted for women! Men generally have less flexibility and a greater degree of upper body strength than women, so Pilates will help to create a longer, more agile body, as well as counter-strengthen the core and lower body. At The Lift Pilates, about 50% of our clientele are men and range in age from 16 to 85. They are current CEO’s, hockey players, attorneys, brokers, golfers, physicians, musicians, students, triathletes, men recovering from injuries or punishing exercise habits, or men who just want a better quality of life. Pilates helps to retrain and re-strengthen the body for optimum performance.

Why come to a Pilates studio?

At The Lift Pilates, our instructors have taken a very difficult path into teacher training and certification. We are currently enrolled in the 96 hour Master’s Training Program through The Pilates Center, Boulder, CO. We require yearly continuing education. All staff is CPR and AED certified.

Pilates is the fastest growing segment of the fitness industry. Because Pilates has become so popular in mainstream America, a quickie low-end teacher training industry has sprung up overnight to fill the need for instructors. The fitness industry caters to the “in” thing and many gyms hire Pilates instructors who have had very little training to teach classes for as many as 30 clients at a time. With the profit machines treating it like a short-lived trend, and with no understanding of the power of the work, there are many Pilates teacher “certifications” that take only a weekend or two to complete. Many “certifications” have no requirements or prior experience with Pilates or any other movement or fitness discipline. The result is that legions of fast-track “certified” instructors flood the market and are teaching something, but certainly not Pilates.

The quickie teacher certifications, the knockoff equipment, the infomercials…hopefully will all pass as quickly as they came, and before we know it, the trend treatment of Pilates will have gone by the way of many other fitness trends that plow through our culture, leaving too many of us injured, many disillusioned, and most of us still looking for safe, effective core strength training. Is someone receiving a 2 weekend certification going to teach you this work? Is someone who hasn’t worked these amazing exercises into their own body going to teach you Pilates? How is someone who doesn’t do Pilates regularly or feel Pilates in their body going to teach you how to do it? The answer is simple: they won’t and they can’t. If you want to learn Pilates, whether you want a healthy body, the long lean look, the mind/body connection or all of the above, don’t settle for a knock-off. You deserve to learn and experience the real deal from well trained instructors teaching Joseph Pilates definition of his work: “Contrology is the complete coordination of body, mind and spirit”.

Don’t be fooled! Pilates is NOT A FAD! It is not a recent trend. The work in its authentic form is almost 100 years old, and it has withstood the test of time.

Joe Pilates did a fabulous job of documenting his work; there are thousands of photos and even film of him teaching and performing his exercises and many of his clients doing Pilates. The fundamentals are constant, nonnegotiable and form the foundation for the safe aspects of this work. The word “classical” refers to Pilates exercises being taught and performed just as Joe created and taught them. You must be taught by a teacher who has been trained on all the apparatus, not bits and pieces, or mat Pilates only. Their training is not fully realized yet. Joe Pilates created the most perfect method in his original order and sequence. There is no need to vary, change or modernize it.

It is possible, sadly, to attend a 60 minute “Pilates mat class” or a “Pilates inspired class” and not perform
a single exercise from the Pilates Method. Yet, it is called Pilates, and the consumer is usually none the wiser.

How can I pay?

The Lift Pilates accepts Visa, MasterCard, checks and cash. Clients are welcome to purchase packages in the studio or by calling (414) 751-8200.